COMMENTARY
MARK SCHUMANN
Vero Beach City Council candidate, Charlie Wilson, has requested up to 15 minutes for expended “public comments” to be delivered near the beginning of next Tuesday’s City Council meeting. At least according the published agenda for next Tuesday’s meeting, Wilson will unveil his “plan for the Vero Electric Utility.”
Presumably, Wilson will present a different plan from the one offered in 2009, when candidate Wilson assured voters the City would net some $80 million from selling its electric utility. It is now clear Wilson’s 2009 projection was off by no less than $80 million.
Given that Wilson is running for one of three open seat on the City Council, it is hard to expect that his extended public comment will be anything more than a campaign appearance – free television time made available to him at the expensive of Vero Beach taxpayers.
Below is the request Wilson submitted to the City Clerk’s office. At least based on the scratch-outs and re-writes, Wilson appears to be uncertain of his address and even his telephone numbers.
Indian River Guardian 
Oh for gosh sakes! And we plan to attend that meeting. I think this is way over the line in giving political candidates free time. If he wants to get free publication of his great and wonderful plan, why not go to the Press Journal so he can get wider coverage. Or even to that island publication. Hardly anyone watches the City Council meetings – most are out working for a living. It irks me no end that he is running his campaign from the City Council Chamber. I wouldn’t vote for him if he were the only candidate running for office.
Why would any person listen to Charlie Wilson . He was one of the first to promote the sale of Vero Electric ,and at that time he claimed that this sale would bring to the city tens of thousands of dollars;he was wrong. Now after moving back into the city once again he needs a campaign issue ,so here we go again. Only this time we have most of the facts, such as ,FPL wanted $26,000,000 from the ratepayers. We said “no” ,loud and clear. What Wilson needs is an issue he is trying to create and big money to run his campaign. One guess where he will get huge amounts of campaign cash? Will Glenn be the man this year as he was for Tracy Carroll last year ? One thing is for sure, he will try and confuse and muddy the issues for his own benefit.
Expended “public comments” ??? At the expensive of ??? C’mon guys!
Charlie’s got some splanen to do. His campaign sign is in violation among “OTHER ______Things”. Anybody else would run for cover and hide, but not Charlie. Obviously he does not observe the old adage “be brief, be concise, and be seated.” Time will tell, but as he has his eyes focused on being MAYOR–probably not. I remember 32963 front page—The FPL deal is dead—but some are still picking at the carcass. With Charlie’s history he should be running “from” city council as he failed to use the word “for” on his campaign sign and there is no running away from that. Yes, and he thought no one would notice.